Like all of you, each day I've got a lot on my mind and a lot to do. As a result, I never remember mundane recurring tasks - like when it's time to change the oil or go to the dentist - or even important yearly events, like friends' and family birthdays.

To solve this problem, Getting Things Done author David Allen recommends keeping a tickler file which consists of a folder for each day of the month. Productive person that you are, you review that file religiously every single day for anything that has to be dealt with today.

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As a not-very-disciplined productive person, this system doesn't work for me. My tickler file slid behind the bookcase six months ago and is covered in dust, abandoned ticklers peeking out at the edges, sad and undone. I simply never remember to review the damn thing. I need a tickler file that's going to jump onto my desk and do cartwheels only on the days it contains something that I need to see.

My pal Merlin Mann calls these types of things "useful landmines" - tricks that make it nearly impossible to fail at something. Plant ticking bombs in your life that will go off exactly when and how you need 'em, no less, and no more. That way you can stop your mind from burning CPU cycles worrying about whether or not you forgot to put new batteries in the smoke detectors, and let it concentrate on the important stuff.

So, let's create a tickler file full of useful landmines that we trust will go off in front of our faces at just the right moment in time. There are probably a million and one ways to do this with every type of PDA and scheduling software. My method employs the free Yahoo! Calendar and its fantastic reminder feature.

To get your Yahoo! tickler started, head over to Yahoo! Calendar and sign in with your Y! ID. Add a recurring event - say, Mom's birthday - and then set it to send you a reminder anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 weeks before it happens. Choose either an IM, email or SMS reminder, and save the event. That's it: you're guaranteed to always get a message before your mother's birthday from your past self saying, "Order flowers for Mom! Her birthday's in two days!"

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I've been using this system for a couple of years now and it's saved my bacon more times than I can count. My Yahoo! Calendar is studded with recurring events that tickle me just at the right time in the right way. Beyond the obvious birthday and bill-paying reminders, here are some examples of ways to use your Yahoo tickler:

Remember tasks that need to be done far in advance.

You call the fireplace cleaner guy in February for an appointment and he tells you to try back in July. So you add a summer email reminder which says, "Call Joe Fireplace Cleaner for an appointment at 555-1212." Notice the phone number: make it as easy as possible for your future self to get the task done.

Send yourself info on the go.

On Monday, you make plans to go to the roller derby Friday night with friends. So you add an event to your Yahoo! calendar for Friday night at 5PM which texts your mobile phone a message that reads "Gotham Girls roller derby tonight at Skate Key, 4 train to 138th street. Meet outside at 7:15." Again, notice directions and specific time - the more info included, the better.

Interrupt yourself.

You're super-involved in a project at work, but you've got lunch plans at 1 o'clock across town. So you set up an IM reminder to go off at 12:30 which says, "Lunch at Frank's! Get going or you'll be late!"

Don't forget the boring but necessary tasks again.

Set up quarterly, monthly, bi-weekly or weekly reminders for mundane tasks, like "Water the plants." "Get a haircut." "Send out that check." "Invoice client." "Mail out estimated taxes." Yahoo! Calendar allows for pretty much any recurring timeframe for events.

Get in on events early.

When you find out tickets go on sale for your favorite band's next show in your town in two weeks, set up a reminder the day before to round up the troops and storm TicketMaster.com. Or send yourself a reminder to get reservations the very day they start accepting them for Restaurant Week.

Create a long term plan and stick to it.

Say you commit yourself to a year-long savings plan to sock away $200 a month for that vacation to St. Croix. Send yourself an email each quarter that says, "Hey self, you should have $x in savings right now. Don't forget how great that Caribbean vacation will be!"

As I said, there are a million webapps and software packages which send can send time-based reminders in one form or another - Microsoft Outlook, Backpack and SmarterChild, to name a few. Yahoo! Calendar is a great fit for a digital tickler because it's free and web-based (no platform dependencies or special desktop software required) and it can send recurring reminders in lots of timeframes in three different forms.